Readers' comments

I cannot understand why The Economist, which prides in itself about supporting the cause of democracy worldwide, worries so much about the prospects of the most undemocratic political figure in India, aka Rahul Gandhi. And especially with this fellow the most baffling thing is that both Indian and international media worry a lot more about his personal political prospects than what he brings to the table to solve the most pressing problems of India.

The fellow's only claim to being a public figure is his family political dynasty. He got voted by the uninformed Amethi voters by publicizing his Nehru-Gandhi lineage. He is supported by a bunch of sycophants within the party (including the prime minister) that has no evidence of any culture of internal democracy, post independence. He is supported by his mother who has a say in every policy decision in the country but refuses to clarify herself in the Parliament or be cross-questioned by independent media (heard of absolute power with absolutely no accountability?)

Yet this fellow is reluctant to announce himself as the leader of the party. Apparently, the fear of electoral defeat haunts him. So we have a fellow who is timid to take the initiative and accept the outcome, a set of sycophants who in spite of knowing all of this cannot project an alternative person as a contender and an enigmatic and powerful mother who is keen on keeping her son relevant in a meaningful way and finally a media which is trying to make a fine soap opera out of all this. Need we more evidence to show the pathetic state of Indian democracy?

>{It boasted this week of recruiting 1m new members in just four days, and aims, plausibly, for 10m before February.}

There is no bigger joke in Indian politics today. Membership of AAP is supposed to be registered by a "missed call". Meaning you give a call to their number which no one picks up and that marks your membership. And then they look up their PC or mobile to count the number of such calls and report it.

Besides, these AAPians are really a bunch of street thugs ... no different than Islamic brotherhood or Pol Pot who shows their true colors after securing power. You may want to know what they are upto ---

Just two days back their Law Minister Mr Somnath Bharti led an angry mob and urged the police force to raid an international hostel of women on the charge of prostitution and drugs abuse. When the police refused (and instead tried to protect the premises), Mr Bharti and his band of self-righteous thugs lay siege upon the building the whole night. When four Ugandan women came back early in the morning, the mob who by then had vastly outnumbered the police abducted two of them, groped and hurled racial abuses at them. A few of them even picked at their clothes and slapped the women. Police had herded them into an empty car in order to separate them from the mob, but had to relent when the mob grew more aggressive. After retaking possession of the women, the mob forced them to urinate in public in order to collect their urine samples. Then they were manhandled all the way to the hospital and probed their organs (I mean cavity search).

As hard as I think of the above, I know of no case where women were forced to urinate in public. Even Pol Pot or Pinochet would have flinched.

Just two months back I was AAP supporter but my views changed reason One has to be clear for what AAP stands for before before voting it to power it is nothing but a combination of some leftist and communist idea rather than empowering people through jobs by infrastructure funding they offer freebies this economic policy of socialist system already rejected by India in 1991 they oppose FDI then how will we get revenue to fund our $1 trillion infrastructure projects that we want they give free water without making prior arrangements as Delhi gets water from Harayana this will create anarchy Arvind refuses security what if tomorrow somebody kidnaps him and then whole state can be held to ransom Yogendra Yadav wants more reservations for him 50% are not enough they want 90% reservation for Delhi people in DU he is soft on terror and has active members like Prashant Bhushan and Kamal Chenoy Kamal has asked Separatist Hurriyat and Yasin Malik to join hands and fight against Indian state my vote is for 21st century economics a stable government an experience and nationalist PM my vote is for Namo

I agree strongly with the comment above, and would like to add a few words:
> I cannot understand why The Economist, which
> prides in itself about supporting the cause of
> democracy worldwide, worries so much about the
> prospects of the most undemocratic political
> figure in India, aka Rahul Gandhi.
It is not just The Economist. The international media seem to have a fascination for an Indian leader of Italian origin. When the Congress came to power, I was in the U.S. and all the intellectuals lauded her, assuming that she would do a great job, simply because of her Italian origin. It is something I can't fathom.
I have worked in 3 countries in my life time. In all these countries, a person's ability would come first - not race or national origin.
Why should it be different in Indian politics? If you wrote Sonia Gandhi's or Rahul Gandhi's resume, how would it look? What have they done to deserve the fascination of the international media? Have these intellectuals listened to the Gandhis' speech, in Hindi, to realize how it sounds to us? Are they even capable of doing so?
I think it was a huge mistake on the part of the international media to glamorize a person whose only qualification was to be the Italian wife of an Indian politician.

You may also want to know that Mr. Somnath Bharti is supposed to be a Supreme Court lawyer (hence his credentials for Law ministry).

He was videographed brow beating the beat constables to conduct an unwarranted raid. In his extreme arrogance and self-righteous scorn he has invited media to live telecast his shenanigans.

Last heard they and the entire bunch of goons were extremely proud of this act and were vociferously defending their group on twitter and facebook ... even calling names to all others who dissented ... their choice term of abuse for others -- crony-capitalists/fascists/communalists/etc ... all this coming from a group who is funded by Ford Foundation.

Now the real issue comes. The same type of people still exists today in the party, who ill advised Mrs. Indira Gandhi during her regime. See what they are doing. They are sure that the party will not win the next Lok sabha election. Also they want to stop the opposition from getting powers. They found a short cut for that. See what tactics they used. They just repeated the history. To get easy power, they propped up another ‘wala’ Bindran wala to Aravind Kegeriwala. See the similarities, this man Aravind is blunt in his speeches, he is against the police, the system. The constitutional bodies, the politics, and all the politicians, and last the media. See the arrogance of this man and the party. My blood boiled when he said ‘what ganathanthra’ at his dharna .Only an anti national person can talk like this. He is a terrorist in a new avatar. He will destroy everything in this country. He called for the mutiny in the police force. He is using the sacred national flag as a valueless cloth in his protest sites. Who gave the right to do all this acts of terrorism. Even the President of country today was disturbed by the happenings and it reflected in his speech. Here is a person who wants to spread anarchy in the country and then take the advantage of that.

Take my words, this person Kegeriwal and his party will one day will be the most hated motley congregation of people in this country. Through their divisive politics and anti national activities, some disgruntled youth will get carried away and will kill you Mr. Rahul Gandhi and mind it that will be saddest day for our country men. What will happen after that, there will be anarchy in the country and the anarchist will also be killed by our forces, what next? We can see the repeat of what happened during Smt. Indira Gandhi’s regime. The so called advisers in the congress party will again rule this country by taking the sympathy wave.

Awake Mr. Rahul awake. still you are sleeping and not seeing the writing on the wall, you will be finished by the ‘wal’ and country will lose a good young leader and the power hungry people in your party will win on your cost.
Even after thousands of years, why we read the epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata, why the plays are enacted repeatedly, why Ravan is being killed every year at the Ramleela grounds. We do all these to study from the history and not to repeat the mistakes we commit in our life.
My advice to you Mr. Rahul Gandhi is, if you want to rule this country honestly and with new young leadership and cadre in the congress party, then you should forthwith withdraw the support you gave to the Delhi Government, which was represented by the self proclaimed anarchist. Concentrate on the party and interact with the media, come out of 10 Jana path and mingle with the common man. Prepare yourself to sit in the opposition as an opposition leader for the coming 5 years. I am sure definitely you can rule this country after 5 years with good margin... Mr. Narendra Modi will rule this country, if that was the mandate of the people. Respect the verdict of the people you have the example of Karnataka in front of you. Patience will give dividend. There is no short cut in politics. Wish u all the best. May the almighty save the country and give wisdom and courage to our leaders to lead our country to great heights. Jai Hind!

Mr. Gandhi is weak, inept, inexperienced, with no support (apart from Congress sycophants - and the international media which, for some reason, loves anything Gandhi). People are fed up with, what they perceive as, rampant corruption aided and abetted by Congress.

Even a Congress leader more experienced than Mr. Gandhi would not be able to save the UPA this general election let alone Mr. Gandhi. He recently gave an interview where he may have ended up losing more support than he gained - he was grilled on the 1984 riots (pogroms organized by Congress) against the Sikhs and his answers have angered members of the community. He projects himself as an outsider - but he is part of a dynasty which has ruled India for a large part of its post-independence period. Mr. Gandhi could have saved himself the humiliation of a disastrous election loss by staying out this time - which may finish whatever political aspirations he has.

AAP, as some commentators have mentioned, had initially roused enthusiasm amongst a section of the middle class. However, after their very public, embarrassing and illegal antics - in particular those of the Delhi law minister, Somnath Bharti (a lawyer who also claims ignorance of legal procedures when leading his thuggish mob to publicly molest women of African origin) - they seem to be losing support as well.

This seems slated to be Narendra Modi's year due to a lack of any other viable alternatives. Every poll and public opinion forum seems to slanting towards him. The popular narrative and his supporters claim his track record for economic growth and development - which is what the electorate is looking for after years of Congress misrule. Of course, whether he can actually deliver remains to be seen.

I have little love for the Gandhis; Nehru and his daughter Indira instituted socialism, nepotism and corruption that doomed 3 generations of Indians to bitter poverty. And the grandson, Rajiv and great-grandson, Rahul were simply incompetent
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Having said that, it is a pity that Indians are between a rock and a hard place for the next elections...
A crumbling political dynasty of incompetents (the Gandhis) versus a communal murderer (Modi)